Time Lords Don't Get Sick
by Aunty Em
Summary: Rose gets sick, and the Meta-Crisis Doctor attempts to cheer her up. Knowing the Doctor, this will end disastrously. Obvious spoilers if you have no clue who the Meta-Crisis Doctor is, and/or haven't seen The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.


Time Lords Don't Get Sick

The sunlight streamed through the windows, hitting the Meta-Crisis Doctor's face as he awoke that morning. He yawned, stretched, and flipped to his left to see the love of his life, Rose, curled up beside him. He smiled. He knew that somedays he missed being a full Time Lord, and the little perks that came with it, but if being half-human could let him spend the rest of his life with Rose, it was always worth it. He kicked off his blankets, and rolled out of bed, toddling off to the kitchen.

He was halfway through his Shreddies when an almighty sneeze, then another, then another, came from their room. He paused, his spoon still in his mouth.

"You OK, Rose?" he mumbled through his spoon, swallowing convulsively.

"No," she rasped. Her nose was red, her face pale and flushed at the same time. She hacked out a cough, then air-balled her Kleenex past the garbage can. "I feel horrible."

"Well, good thing a Doctor's here, then!" he chirped, yanking a stethoscope from inside a dresser drawer. He sat down beside her, and listened to her heartbeat. It was a little irregular. Then another cough attack drowned it out. He felt her forehead, and frowned.

"I think you have the flu, Rose," he muttered, looking into her eyes one by one, shining a light from his screwdriver.

"Shut that off," she moaned. He complied, stuffing it back into the drawer with his stethoscope. "We better get to work, the Admiral will kill us if we're late again."

The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, no. You're staying home, and so am I. We have enough overtime banked, so you can have a sick day, and I can look after you! Won't it be fun?"

"Sure," Rose rasped sarcastically, "Especially with you jumping around all day. Do you have some kind of special Time Lord remedy for colds, or are you going to let me sleep?"

"Of course I do!" he chirped. "Now, you just stay here and rest, I'll be right back..." He dashed out the door, and back into the kitchen. Now, if he could just remember that recipe for that Kalifraxian chicken soup...

He dug pretty much everything out of the cupboards, and got to work. He added the flour, the eggs, the mango juice... Eventually, all the components got added, and he let it sit on the stovetop at around half-heat. Or maybe that was supposed to be quarter-heat. Wait...

From her room, Rose heard the unearthly explosion. She scrambled out of bed, and dashed down the hallway... Only to find the Doctor in the kitchen, he and the entire room covered in some substance. He stumbled around a bit, dazed, then waved at her.

"Wh... What was that?!" she exclaimed. She groaned, and clutched her throat. Too loud.

"I think the filaments reacted with the ion-based precognesis caused when I mixed the..." Rose glared at him, and he grinned sheepishly. "Um, I think I turned to stove up a little too high."

Rose sighed. "Doctor..."

"Hey, it's a very complicated recipe!" he defended. "It's hard to remember everything, last time I made it was 40 years ago!"

Rose sighed, rubbing her now-aching head. "Just... Clean it up, OK?"

"Righty-O, pip!" he exclaimed. "It'll be clean in no time!"

Rose sighed, and wandered off back to bed. The Doctor frowned. This was going to be hard. He gazed around the kitchen for a while, his eyes settling on the sink. He grinned.

Rose had just gotten back to bed, when she heard a yell, and the sound of gushing water. She hopped up, groaning, and walked into the hallway again. The Doctor was running around the kitchen, trying to avoid the blast of water coming from the dismantled sink. He ducked, and wrenched a faucet piece back into place, the belligerent water spraying him in the process. He turned slowly, grinning at Rose's furious gaze.

"It's clean," he offered.

Rose grumbled, rubbing her head again. "Just... clean it up the normal way. And try not to destroy the house," she snapped. She stumbled back to bed, grumbling.

The Doctor sighed. He had made Rose mad. That wasn't good. He felt that little human thing called conscience worm it's way into his gut. He grumbled at his human half, and grabbed a towel.

When he was done, he quietly padded into Rose's room. She was trying to sleep, with not much success. He sat down at the foot of the bed, resting his hand on her leg.

"Rose, I'm sorry I bothered you," he said quietly, remorse coming into his voice. That was a surprise. He coughed self-consciously, and continued. "I was just trying to make you feel better. I'm sorry. Time Lords don't really get sick, so I'm kind of making this up as I go."

She turned beneath his hand, gazing up at him with a weary smile. "I know," she relented. "But that made me feel better."

He grinned, and snuggled down beside her. "I'll nap now," he decided, "So I don't blow anything up."

"Maybe you shouldn't," Rose warned. "You don't want to catch this."

"Aww, don't worry about me," he insisted. "I told you, Time Lords don't get sick."

1 Day Later...

"Where in the Medusa Cascade are you two?!" admiral Johnson roared through the phone. "You're supposed to be on shift!"

"Sorry," a stuffed-up Doctor muttered back, "But we're kinda...a...A-CHOO!"

A sneeze rocketed through the phone's little speaker, causing the Admiral to almost drop it. He fiddled for a while, then sighed grumpily. "Not you too..."

~Fins~


End file.
